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UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING. 
Agricultural College Department. 



WYOMING EXPERIMENT STATION, 



LARAMIE, WYOMING. 



BUri_^I_ETIN NO. 63. 

AUGUST, 1904. 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes 

Three Seasons' Trials. 

By ELIAS NELSON. 



Bulletins will be sent free upon request. Address: Director 
Experiment Station, Laramie, Wyo. 






& 
^ 



WYOMING 

Agricultural Experiment Station. 



UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING. 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

Hon. OTTO GRAMM, President, Laramie 1909 

Hon. HENRY L. STEVENS, M. D, Laramie 1909 

Hon. HARRIET KNIGHT, A. B., Cheyenne 1909 

Hon. JOHN C. DAVIS, Rawlins . .1907 

Hon. TIMOTHY F. BURKE, LL. B., Vice President, Cheyenne. .. 1907 

Hon. ARTHUR C. JONES, Treasurer, Laramie. . , 1905 

Hon. ELIZABETH ARNOLD STONE, A. B., Evanston 1905 

Hon. A. J. MOKLER, Casper 1905 

Hon. GEORGE ABER, Sheridan 1905 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction T. T. TYNAN. .. .Ex-officio 

President FREDERICK M. TISDEL, Ph. D Ex-officio 

GRACE RAYMOND HEBARD, Ph. D Secretary 



Agricultural Committee of the Board of Trustees. 

H. L. STEVENS, Chairman Laramie 

OTTO GRAMM Laramie 

A. C. JONES Laramie 



STATION COUNCIL. 

F. M. TISDEL, Ph. D President 

B. C. BUFFUM, M. S Director, Agriculturist and Horticulturist 

A. NELSON, M. S., A. M Botanist 

C. B. RIDGAWAY, A. M Physicist and Meteorologist 

H. G. KNIGHT, A. B Chemist 

G. R. HEBARD, A. M., Ph. D Secretary 

B. P. FLEMING, B. S Irrigation Engineer 

E. E. NELSON, A. M Assistant in Horticulture and Agrostology 

H. C. McLALLEN, M. S. A Assistant Agriculturist 

E. L. CASE Stenographer 



^ILJAiAl^F^Y. 



1. This bulletin is a report on various experiments with 
saltbushes at the Experiment Farm, three years' tests of Aus- 
tralian and native species and observations made in the field. 

2. These investigations have been carried on in co-oper- 
ation with the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Professor 
Scribner, the former Chief of the Division of Agrostologv, 
and Professor Spillman, the present Chief, have extended 
financial aid and furnished seed for the prosecution of this 
work. 

3. The investigations have included field tests of native 
and introduced saltbushes on cultivated land, seeding on the 
range, and experiments designed to determine the best time 
and best method of seeding the saltbushes. 

4. The Australian Saltbush is a valuable forage plant 
in its native home and in parts of California and the South- 
west. It makes a rank growth, is used for pasturage or cut 
and stacked for hay, and is an acceptable and nutritious feed 
for stock. 

5. In Wyoming the Australian Saltbush winterkills and 
does not grow sufficiently rank during our short season to be 
of value for this region. 

6. Stockmen and farmers should not be misled by the 
glowing accounts in seed catalogues of the marvelous growth 
of the Australian Saltbush. 

7. The saltbushes are grayish, scurfy, annual or per- 
ennial, herbaceous or shrubby plants of a dense and usually 
bushy habit of growth. 



Native and Introduced Saltbnshes. 



8. Seven indigenous or native species are of importance 
in our State. Two of these are shrubby ; three are herba- 
ceous perennials, and three are annuals. 

9. Our native saltbnshes, especially Nuttall's and Nel- 
son's, occur in great abundance in many localities and in the 
Red Desert are of vast importance as winter forage for sheep. 

10. The shrubby species are unsuitable for cultivation. 

11. Nuttall's and Nelson's Saltbush may be grown for 
pasturage. They make a good stand under favorable condi- 
tions, but grow slowly and require several seasons to attain 
full size. 

12. The annual species are easy to start, make rapid 
growth and produce a large amount of forage on moist alkali 
land. They grow sufficiently rank to be cut for hay. 

13. A moist soil and a certain amount of weathering of 
the seed is necessary for good germination. 

14. The best stand was obtained where the seeds were 
covered half an inch deep, but nearly as good results were 
secured where they were left on the surface of the soil. 

15. The best time to sow the saltbushes is in the fall or 
very early in spring. 

16. Profitable crops are produced only where the soil 
is loose and friable and tolerably moist. 

17. The saltbushes are recommended for cultivation on 
moist alkali land unsuitable for other crops. 

18. Alkali lands used for pasturage may be materially 
improved by simply scattering seed over them, but some cul- 
tural treatment of the land is recommended wherever prac- 
ticable. 

19. Sheep soon become accustomed to them, eat them 
readily and remain in good condition when subsisting on salt- 
bush forage. 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes 

THREE SEASONS' TRIALS. 



BY KLIAS NELSON. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The forage value of saltbushes was early recognized by 
sheepmen both in the Western United States and in Aus- 
tralia. As soon as their tolerance of alkali and general adapt- 
ability to arid conditions became well known, far-seeing men 
interested themselves in their domestication. The cultivation 
of our native species has not been seriously considered until 
very recently. An Australian saltbush has been very suc- 
cessfully and profitably grown in California for more than ten 
years. Its extraordinary rankness of growth in that State 
has reached the ears of stockmen and farmers in Wyoming. 
Seedmen have given glowing descriptions of its wonderful 
productiveness, and many of our stockmen have speculated 
on realizing large gains by cultivating this plant, and not a 
few have lost money and experienced failures in attempts to 
grow it. The possibilities of our native species under culti- 
vation have in the minds of many been unduly magnified, and 
some have even talked of seeding down whole sections of 
range land to the Russian Thistle. It is time for this station 
to publish some facts in regard to saltbushes, and to disabuse 
the public mind of erroneous ideas concerning the value of the 
Australian Saltbush for our State. It is our purpose in this 
bulletin to report the results of tests made on the Experiment 
Farm and observations made in the field, and to indicate the 
probable value of saltbushes for cultivation in this State. 



Native and Introduced Saltbushcs. 



CHARACTERISTICS. 

The saltbushes or Atriplexes are succulent alkali plants, 
usually scurfy and grayish in color and with herbaceous or 
somewhat shrubby stems. They are nearly all diffuse in 
growth, and the seed of some species resembles that of spin- 
ach. Some are annuals ; others perennial. Those with her- 
baceous stems are the most valuable ones for cultivation. 
They belong to the Goosefoot Family, as does also the culti- 
vated beet, the lambs-quarter and the garden spinach. The 
common Greasewood and Winter Fat are also classified in 
this family. 




SEEDS OF PERENNIAL SALTBUSHES. 
J . Nuttall's. 2 and 3. Nelson's 4. Shadscale. 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 



OCCURRENCE. 

In dry, interior regions, where there is little rainfall and 
more or less alkali in the soil, the more valuable forage plants, 
or the true grasses, are very largely replaced by other herb- 
age. Saltbushes and their allies occur in such regions and 
are often the predominant class of vegetation. They often 
furnish more than half of the pasturage. 

Many large and rank growing species, both annual and 
perennial, occur in Australia, and sheep have for many years 
been pastured very extensively on the natural growths of salt- 
bushes in the deserts of that continent. More than thirty dif- 
ferent saltbushes are indigenous to the Western United States, 
and most of those possess some forage value. 

THE AUSTRALIAN SALTBUSH. 

Australian saltbushes were introduced into California as 
early as 1881, but it was not until in 1888 that the most val- 
uable one, Atriplex semibaccata, now known throughout this 
country as the "Australian Saltbush," was tried in that State. 
Its rankness of growth, great drought-resisting qualities and 
tolerance of alkali soon became known and its cultivation has 
as a result increased until today it is grown quite extensively 
in California and parts of Arizona and New Mexico. In the 
warm, arid districts of California it is a very prolific grower, 
forming dense mats a foot or more in depth, and individual 
plants are often a few to even six feet in diameter. Not only 
will all classes of stock in the majority of cases eat it readily, 
either green or cured, but are said to thrive on it. In Cali- 
fornia it is cut for hay, as well as used for pasturage. It may 
be mowed as many as three times in a season, and a yield of 
twenty tons of green feed or five tons of hay per acre is not 
at all unusual. Seed of this saltbush has been widely dis- 
tributed by the California Experiment Station and by the U. 
S. Department of Agriculture. It has been tested in all the 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 



Western States and other parts of the United States. The 
seed is now offered for sale by all leading seedsmen in the 
East, as well as in the West, at a price of from one dollar to 
one dollar and fifty cents per pound. What seedsmen claim 
for this', forage plant applies only to its cultivation . in the 
warm districts of California and similar regions in the South- 
west. Our experiments have shown that it is entirely un- 
suited to our conditions. 

CULTIVATION OF AMERICAN SALTBUSHES. 
The success of Australian species in California naturally 
led to an inquiry into the practicability of cultivating certain 
ones of our native species. The National Department has 
done much along this line, and through its field agents has 
secured seed of most of our Western species. This seed has 
been sent to the Experiment Stations in the West, where 
many of our natives have been tested. The Wyoming Station 
has co-operated with the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 
these investigations, and has for three years carried on ex- 
periments with saltbushes on the farm. 

THE SALTBUSHES OF WYOMING. 
In our State it is chiefly in Sweetwater, Carbon and 
Natrona Counties that the saltbushes are sufficiently abundant 
to figure very largely as a forage for stock. Wherever the 
saltbushes occur they are browsed upon and when accustomed 
to them stock eat them readily. We have observed that fully 
developed plants occur as a rule only inside enclosures, or 
where stock has not had free range. Being salty to the taste, 
grazing animals eat of them along with other herbage, and 
where they occur in pastures and on the range there is no need 
of providing salt for the stock. In parts of Sweetwater and 
Carbon Counties the saltbushes are the predominant herbage 
and often constitute from one-half to nearly all of the forage. 
On these ranges there is usually no water during - summer 



Native and In'roduced Saltbushes. 




Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 



and what may be found in springs or sluggish creeks is gen- 
erally too strongly impregnated with salt for use. These 
lands cannot for that reason be pastured in summer, but in 
winter when snowdrifts are found along bluffs and in gulleys 
sheep are driven in and the saltbushes and other plants which 
have grown undisturbed during the summer and cured in the 
fall furnish winter feed for these flocks. Sheep not only are 
able to subsist on this kind of forage, but thrive on it and re- 
main in good condition. 

These winter ranges do not deteriorate, as the plants 
are allowed to mature and reseed themselves during the grow- 
ing season. The pasturage actually improves, for the plants 
become more matted as a result of the cropping and the drop- 
pings of the sheep add to the fertility of the soil. 

Three of the seven more common species occurring in 
Wyoming are annuals, and two of the perennial ones are 
shrubby. 

The Spiny Saltbush (Artiplex confertifolia) is a much 
branched, somewhat spiny, grayish shrub, one to several feet 
high. It has broad leaves and fiattish seeds. The leaf-like 
bracts which enclose the seed proper are thick and scurfy, 
and have broad, rounded, free terminal portions. It is not 
uncommon on clayey alkaline flats. In autumn the leaves and 
seeds fall to the ground and are swept by the wind into small 
depressions in the ground. These accumulations are gathered 
up by sheep in the winter. 

Shadscale (Artiplex caiiescens) is a grayish, scurfy shrub, 
one to several feet high, with narrow leaves and large, succu- 
lent, four-winged seeds. It occurs on clayey hillsides and 
bluffs in many localities in Wyoming, being rather conspicuous 
toward the close of the season when heavily loaded with seeds. 
Its succulent young shoots and large seeds, which are pro- 
duced in great abundance, furnish considerable browsing for 
stock. 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 



9 



Nuttall's Saltbush (Atriplex Nuttallii) is the most im- 
portant of the native saltbushes of this State. It is a deep- 
rooted perennial of a spreading and bushy growth, the leafy 
stems usually a foot or less in length. The plant is generally 
grayish in color and has thickish, succulent leaves, which are 
narrowly oblong and entire. By September the fertile plants 
have become heavily loaded with seeds, which are somewhat 
flattened, toothed at the summit and more or less covered on 
the sides with tubercle-like points. 

This saltbush occurs on dry, gravelly plains and gumbo 
flats, in soil which is not too strongly alkaline. It is readily 
eaten by stock and endures close grazing. Where it is cropped 
continuously it becomes matted and sends up numerous leafy 




NUTTALL'S SALTBUSH 
[Atriplex Nuttallii) 



10 



Native and Introduced Saltbushcs. 




Nuttall's Saltbjsh spreading on hard, gravelly ground in a dooryard. 
The large plant to the left is the parent of the smaller plants about it. 

shoots. It is very common in many parts of Wyoming and in 
the Red Desert furnishes at least half of the winter forage. 
It readily re'seeds and maintains itself where once established. 
( >ccasionally it spreads into fallow fields and here makes a 
thrifty growth. It often takes possession of dooryards, com- 
pletely covering the ground. 



Nelson's Saltbush (Atriplex pabularis). This saltbush 
was discovered in the Red Desert in 1897 by Professor Aven 
Nelson. It is very similar to Nuttall's Saltbush, but is whiter 
in color and of a more upright habit of growth. It is abundant 
only in the Red Desert, where it flourishes in the strongest 
alkali soils. 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 



ii 



The Utah Saltbush (Atriplex truncata) is an annual spe- 
cies, somewhat pyramidal in form and with much-branched 
stems, greenish leaves and small seeds. It is common in waste 
places near towns, in dooryards and in loose soil generally, 
especially where there is some alkali. About Laramie we 
have observed that it is kept well browsed down by the town 
cows. It spreads rapidly on railroad embankments, and, though 
often appearing in cultivated fields, it is not a troublesome 
weed. In good soil it often grows to be two feet high and 
several feet in diameter. 




UTAH SALTBUSH 

(Atriplex truncata) 



12 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 




SILVERY OR TUMBLING SALTBUSH 
{Atriplex argentfa) 



Silvery Saltbush (Atriplex argentea). An animal saltbush 
of a rounded form, grayish white color and with seeds which 
are more or less tubercled and winged. Its growth is very 
dense, and under favorable conditions it attains a great size, 
often being a foot and a half high and several feet in diameter. 
It occurs on alkali flats and attains its greatest size where the 
soil is loose and contains considerable alkali. In the fall the 
tap roots. usually break off and the plants, driven about by the 
winds, often pile up against wire fences and other obstructions 
in their way. 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 



13 



Spreading Saltbush (Atriplex philonitra). This is an- 
other annual species growing naturally where the soil is quite 
strongly alkaline. It is quite white in color, dense and spread- 
ing as to its habit of growth and has slender stems and small, 
broad leaves. Jt is not as large nor as coarse as the other 
annuals. It conies fery readily from seed and is easy of cul- 
tivation. 



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SPREADING SA.LTBUSH 
(Atriplex philonitra ) 



14 Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 



THE CULTIVATION OF SALTBUSHES ON THE EX- 
PERIMENT FARM. 

The Australian Saltbush was tested at this station as early 
as in 1897. It was again sown in 1901. Though a thin stand 
was secured, it made very little growth. Being a perennial, it 
should live from year to year, but with us it has winterkilled. 
It is too tender for this region and does n<ft grow rank enough, 
at least at Laramie, to be of any value. We would, therefore, 
advise ranchmen and farmers not to plant it, as it is quite 
evidently unsuited to our climatic conditions. Five other Aus- 
tralian saltbushes have been tried on the Experiment Farm, 
and, while some made considerable growth, they are all too 
tender for this State and do not attain as large a size as some 
of our natives. 

The cultivation of the native saltbushes of the Western 
United States by farmers and at the Experiment Stations has 
generally been unsuccessful. As a rule they have failed to 
make a stand. This had been the experience on our Experi- 
ment Farm when our station in 1901 took up grass and forage 
plant investigations in co-operation with the U. S. Department 
of Agriculture. Experiments with saltbushes formed an im- 
portant part of these investigations. The National Department 
furnished us with seeds of certain native species each year, 
and a further supply of seed for the experiments has been 
gathered in Wyoming by the writer. 

The experiments carried on during the three years have 
included* (1 ) tests on broken, cultivated land containing small 
amount of alkali, (2) tests on range lands, (3) late fall seed- 
ing versus spring seeding, and (4) planting to determine best 
method of sowing the seed. 



*For a more complete account of the experiments and the results obtained see the 
13th and 14th Annual Reports of the Wyoming Experiment Station. 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 15 

FIELD TESTS ON CULTIVATED LAND. 

The land used contained alkali in amounts just large 
enough to render it unsuited for the cultivation of alfalfa. It 
was in a good condition of tilth. The seed was sown broad- 
cast by hand after a seed bed had been prepared. On June 8, 
in 1901, six native species were sown on half an acre, the seeds 
being raked in by hand. As dry weather had already set in, 
there was a lack of moisture and the seeds did not germinate 
well. The Utah Saltbush, however, made a fairly good stand, 
the plants maturing fully and attaining a height of a foot and 
a half. Only a few plants of the Silvery Saltbush appeared. 
These were eight to fifteen inches high and one to two feet 
in diameter. A few seedlings of Nuttall's and Nelson's Salt- 
bushes were observed, but these made very little growth that 
season. Shadscale and the Spiny Saltbush did not come up. 

In 1902 all of the Wyoming species were planted in the 
same manner as in the preceding season, except that the seed 
was covered by means of a spike-toothed harrow. The per- 
ennial ones were sown on May 3. A very sparse stand was 
secured of most of these, but they did not make a great deal 
of growth and the stems thrown out were few and not over a 
foot in length at the end of the season. The annual species 
were planted May 23. As dry weather prevailed during May 
and June, the seeds did not germinate, but as a result of the 
rain which fell in July all came up and made a good stand. 
Though the seedlings were not discernible until in August, 
considerable growth was made before the close of the season. 
The Silvery Saltbush attained a height of a foot ; the Spread- 
ing Saltbush fifteen inches, and the Utah Saltbush a foot. A 
severe freeze on September 11 injured the Utah Saltbush in 
the tops, while the other two were more or less completely 
killed. 

Nine western saltbushes were sown on May 15, in 1903. 
While a fairly good stand was secured of nearly all of them, 



1 6 Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 

very little growth was made, the plants being only a few 
inches high at the close of the season. The Silvery Saltbush 
and the Utah Saltbush, however, did quite well and ma'de a 
ranker growth than in 1902. 

RANGE SEEDING. 

Four of our native species were sown on a tract of range 
land on May 3, in 1902. The land was scarified by means of a 
spike-toothed harrow before the seed was sown and again 
harrowed after the planting to cover the seed. None of the 
saltbushes came up, as the season was very dry. 

On October 25 of the same year an adjacent piece of land 
was disc-harrowed and three of our native saltbushes sown 
and the seed harrowed in. Nuttall's Saltbush and the Utah 
Saltbush came up well the following spring, but the Silvery 
Saltbush did not make a stand. These species made scarcely 
any growth, not being over an inch or two high in September. 
Observations made this spring show that Nuttall's Saltbush 
has not persisted. 

In these range experiments the saltbushes were sown in 
hard, gravelly, upland soil, where they do not grow naturally. 
We are confident that with the same treatment good results 
can be secured on lowlands which are somewhat moist. 

FALL SEEDING VERSUS SPRING SEEDING. 
Seeds of Nuttall's Saltbush, Utah Saltbush and Silvery 
Saltbush planted on October 21, 22 and 23, in 1901, and cov- 
ered half an inch deep made a fairly good stand the following 
spring. The same species planted in the same manner on May 
10, in 1902, failed to come up. The experiment was repeated in 
the fall of 1902 (October 2) and in the following spring (April 
21). Equally good stands were obtained, both where the seed 
was covered half an inch deep and where left on the surface 
of the ground. Good results may thus be secured both from 
spring and fall seeding if the planting in the spring be early, 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 17 

but a good germination of the seed is more certain when they 
are sown in the fall. 

METHODS OF PLANTING. 

The different methods tried were, (1) planting one inch 
deep, (2) half an inch deep and (3) leaving the seeds on the 
surface of the ground. The plantings were made in the fall of 
1901 (October 21, 22 and 23), in the spring of 1902 (May 
10), and the autumn of 1902 (October 27), and in the spring 
of 1903 (April 21). The four plantings were made in identi- 
cally the same manner. The saltbushes used were Nuttall's, 
the Silvery and the Utah. 

The best results from the autumn planting of 1901 were 
secured where the seed was covered half an inch deep, while 
the seed covered one inch deep gave only a slightly better 
stand than those left on the surface. The stand of the annual 
species was somewhat better than that of Nuttall's Saltbush. 
The seed planted in the spring of 1902 did not come up, as 
the season was very dry. 

The results of the plantings in the fall of 1902 were very 
similar to those of the plantings the following spring. Good 
stands were obtained both where the seed was covered one 
inch deep and where half an inch deep. The seed planted 
half an inch deep, however, gave the best stand. On the plat? 
where the seed had been left on the surface a fairly good 
stand was obtained. 

A light covering for the seed thus gave the best results, 
while nearly as good stands were secured where the seed was 
left on the surface and where planted an inch deep. The pres- 
ence of sufficient moisture in the soil, however, appears to be 
of more importance than the method of seeding. The husk 
in which the seed kernel is enclosed is hard and tough, and 
germination is not possible until it has been subjected for con- 
siderable time to the softening action of moisture. To ensure 
sufficient weathering of the seed, the sowing should be in the 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 



autumn or early enough in spring to receive full benefit from 
late snows and the April showers. 



GENERAL NOTES. 

The Australian Saltbush and other satlbushes of that 
island continent, while of great value for cultivation in their 
native home and in parts of California and the Southwest, are 
unsuited to our State. They are too tender and do not grow 
rank enough in our short season to make their cultivation 
profitable. 

Our native species, it is well known, are of great im- 
portance where they occur in abundance, and many sheep grow- 
ers depend upon the natural growths of saltbushes as winter 
forage for their flocks. Observations made in the field and 
tests made at the Experiment Farm seem to indicate that their 
cultivation will prove profitable only to a limited extent. 

Only the herbaceous species or those not woody are suit- 
able for cultivation. Such are Nuttall's Saltbush, Nelson's 
Saltbush and the three annual species. Their cultivation would 
not be profitable on land where it is possible to grow forage 
plants which make a ranker growth and are more acceptable 
as feed for stock. Only on alkali lands unsuitable for other 
crops is it advisable to plant the saltbushes, and good yields 
will not be realized except on lands which are tolerably moist 
and which have been put in a good condition of tilth. 

Nuttall's Saltbush does not grow sufficiently rank to be 
cut for hay, and its habit is such as not to adapt it for mowing. 
The same may be said of Nelson's Saltbush, though it grows 
more upright and is somewhat taller. The annuals, on the 
other hand, grow quite rank and yield a large amount of for- 
age. It would be quite practicable to cut them for hay. They 
are, however, much coarser than the Australian Saltbush, 
which has very slender stems and is cut and stacked for hay 
in California. It is perhaps chiefly for pasturage that they 



Native and Introduced Saltbushes. 19 



may be grown. There is much alkali land naturally quite 
moist on ranches in Wyoming which, if planted to saltbushes, 
the annuals especially, could be made to yield large crops of 
forage. 

A moist soil is necessary if a good stand is to be secured, 
and a certain amount of weathering of the seed to soften the 
hard husks enclosing it favors germination. The seed, there- 
fore, should be sown very early in spring or in the fall. The 
best germination in our experience was obtained from seeds 
which were covered half an inch deep, but almost as good re- 
sults were secured when the seed was left on the surface of 
the soil. 

The perennials are of slow growth at best and it requires 
a few seasons for the individual plants to reach full size. The 
annuals, however, are easy to start, and make quick and large 
growths under favorable conditions. 

While a better stand and a quicker growth is obtained 
when a seed bed is prepared, it is, however, quite possible to 
materially improve the pasturage of alkali land by simply 
broadcasting the seed. The annual saltbushes are valuable 
for this purpose. They reseed themselves from year to year 
on alkali flats, in fallow fields, on railroad embankments and 
in dooryards. Nuttall's and Nelson's Saltbushes may be sown 
in the same way on suitable land. It is not advisable to sow 
the saltbushes on dry. upland pastures, as the annuals make 
very little growth here and the perennials are too difficult to 
establish. 

We have no data bearing directly on the digestibility and 
nutritive value of our native saltbushes. We do not believe 
that they equal in palatability or nutritive value our native 
grasses or the common forage crops grown in the State. It 
is well known that they furnish a vast amount of acceptable 
forage for sheep in winter, and that stock browse upon these 
plants more or less and remain in good condition when sub- 
sisting very largely on saltbushes. 



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